Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The Washington DC City Council on Tuesday passed B19-90, a bill to move the presidential and local primaries to the first Tuesday in April. The presidential primary would shift from the second Tuesday in February and the local primaries would move up to April from September. The former brings the District in line with the national parties' rules on the timing of the presidential primary there while the latter move is in accordance with the federal mandate handed down in the MOVE act.

If signed by the mayor, this legislation would align DC with the Maryland presidential primary. Interestingly, both bills passed -- council or legislature -- a year to the day before the date on which the bills propose the primaries in each be held: April 3.